The story is an account of an infant who is born an old man and lives life in reverse, growing younger by the day and dying as an infant at the end of his life.
On her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital around the time of Hurricane Katrina, elderly Daisy asks her daughter to read from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by a certain someone called Benjamin Button. The story begins as she starts to read.
Benjamin Button, played by the talented Brad Pitt, was born to a button-manufacturing father, whose mother dies while giving birth to him. On birth, his father abandons him and his horrifically old and wrinkled baby face. A black employee of an old-age home raises him, a place Button feels home. Young at heart, the old-toddler learns life’s lessons from the many people dying around him.
This is also where he meets his love interest Daisy, later played by Cate Blanchett, at a very young age. The love story does not quite meet Romeo and Juliet’s quintessence. Interest remains intact from both sides until Tilda Swinton, an upper-class Englishwoman married to a diplomat in Russia, changes the way Button sees love and life in general. Daisy grows up to become a gifted ballet dancer and starts living a New York lifestyle. The two are brought together after an accident, but it is still only after some time and many other life experiences when they finally begin their life together as a couple.
The story’s backdrop is based on a train station clock constructed in such a way that it runs backward, constructed thus by the clockmaker in a vain attempt to bring his son back who was killed in the First World War. The movie starts with the celebration of World War I, goes into Pearl Harbor and the hippie generation, and ends with Hurricane Katrina.
The 2 hour 40 minute-long movie is melancholic at times. It’s a slow love story which will not reveal itself until the very end. It is a winding tale of a couple who find love during difficult times, weird hours, and after a long period. Both fall in love at the same time with each other only when their age matches. The saddest side of the movie arises as she grows older, and he younger.
The movie has similar themes to the short story; however, the film adaptation is differently portrayed with several different story plots included.
David Fincher is a genius to have made such a variety of movies, including Se7en, Fight Club and Zodiac. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one can experience his ingenious ability to portray a picturesque tale. Its brilliance is in its shots.
The cinematography is splendidly photographed and has the same low-key lighting and green-tinted temperature you see in many of Fincher’s movies. The digital imposition of Brad Pitt’s old mug over other bodies is quite breathtaking. It will be a while until we see the true matinee star we know and love.
Brad Pitt gives one of the greatest performances of his life. Glimpses of a young Pitt bring back memories of Thelma and Louise at times, of Legends of the Fall (with Anthony Hopkins) at others. And an old and wrinkled Pitt may even provide a sneaky peak of how he will look as he ages. He is almost perfect for his character. He knows what he is doing with the temperament of the protagonist. He does not work hard on acting, but is instead comfortable with himself as this old man, growing in a world which is constantly self-aware with its aging "problem". The director has cleverly made the character’s current age to correspond with the number of the hotel rooms in the film.
Blanchett, truly talented, is somehow unable to entirely live up to the mark. But she still looks stunning, her skin illuminated and her dance mesmerizing. The two are not the best-suited couple, but were perfect when they were vying to be. As a couple, they seem cold and romantically unfit. Perhaps this is why their love story fails.
The movie is long and complicated, but smart and well-crafted. It is multi-layered, elaborate and convoluted, but not difficult to understand. Unlike Fight Club, there is no machismo. Nor are there the extremes of Zodiac. This is a simple love story woven delightfully into a very long thread of charming and obscure accounts of visual realism. Its strength is in the storytelling and the detail. The aging process of each character is nothing short of amazing. The movie is so beautifully made that one thing you will ask yourself after watching the movie is – "Maybe it is possible. Could it ever have happened?"
Rating: 4/5
Casting: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda P Swinton
Director: David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac)
Screenplay: Eric Roth
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